He was born on 19th November 1792 in Greenock. Between 1806 and 1813 he studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and, on graduating, joined the army as a surgeon. He took part in the Canadian—American war of 1814, but within two years he had resigned his commission to work in India, and he did not return to Scotland until 1820. He set up medical practice in Edinburgh and lectured on medical jurisprudence at the University, but in 1824, on becoming a member of the Royal College of
Surgeons, he moved to London, where he became involved with John Galt in the establishment of the Canada Company. From 1826 until his death on 29 June 1848 Dunlop lived in Canada and enjoyed a distinguished public life as an army officer and later as a member of parliament. Dunlop had started writing while in India and during his stay in Edinburgh he was closely associated with the newly founded Blackwood's Magazine. He edited two London-based newspapers. The British Press and The Telescope, and wrote widely on Canadian affairs, publishing his Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada in 1832.

Works: .Elements of Medical Jurisprudence (1825); Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada (1832); Defence of the Canada Company (1836); A. H. V. Colquhoun, ed.. Recollections of the American War (1905).